“But when the fulness of the time was come...” (from Galatians 4:4)
I will never forget the date or the day: September 10, 2001. Monday.
It was a beautiful September day...sunny, not too hot and not too cold, fairly low humidity, bright blue sky and hardly a cloud in the sky. My wife Mary Ann and I went to visit one of our church’s most beloved members that morning. Eighty-year-old Ernie Sleeper of Norfolk was temporarily in a Nursing Home and Rehabilitation facility in Franklin. Just a few weeks earlier, Ernie had not been feeling well at all and ended up as a patient in a major Boston hospital. The open heart surgery on Ernie had taken its toll. Ernie, who had been as strong as an ox and as active and vigorous as the average 55-year-old man had NOT looked like himself at all when Mary Ann and I had visited him in the hospital in August. At that time, he was hanging between life and death. I frankly didn’t think he’d make it. Thus, it was with great excitement that we visited Ernie at the Franklin facility. Ernie looked and seemed MUCH more like his old self that morning! Robbie Fregeau, a self-employed guy about my age, who was very close to Ernie had decided to visited him that morning, as well. All of us met and “had fellowship” in the Nursing Home’s Community Room. The television set was on, and Ernie LOVED it. Except for my son Jon, I have never seen anyone love television shows as much as Ernie. He had taped hours and hours of shows on his V.C.R. If the “T.V.” section of his Sunday Attleboro Sun Chronicle was ever missing, he went back to the convenience store where he’d purchased the paper and made sure they knew he’d been cheated out of the “T.V.” section! That morning, a rerun of “Unsolved Mysteries” was on television and Ernie was gripped with it. I think he was more interested in “Unsolved Mysteries” than in visiting with his guests! Honestly, I was kind of glued to “Unsolved Mysteries” as well. Seeing “good old Ernie” again, and knowing he’d be coming back home and back to church was heartwarming. (Ernie died three years later, but the three years prior to his death WERE mostly healthy and happy ones.)
When Mary Ann and I got back to the parking lot and our 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan, I was NOT a particularly “happy camper”. A landscaping crew was working on the lawns around the nursing home. There were all sorts of trucks, mowers, and other equipment. They essentially had me “pinned” into my parking space. Mary Ann didn’t mind it too much, but I’m STILL not real good at maneuvering that Dodge Grand Caravan, and it took some real skill and white knuckles to get our vehicle out of that tight parking spot! Yes, the grass was as green and beautiful as it could be, but I was annoyed! I HATED when blue collar guys kind of threw their weight around and made me feel like a geeky white-collar nerd. Why? Because I’m essentially a geeky white-collar nerd, but I don’t like it when cool blue-collar macho guys remind me of that!
Mary Ann and I went for lunch to a Chinese restaurant located in a Franklin shopping center. We’d eaten there before, but that had been at least ten years earlier. As I recall there were a lot of mothers and kids in the restaurant and I’m not sure why. One would have thought they kids would be in school. I like Chinese food, and I was happy Ernie Sleeper was coming along so well, but my pride was wounded about that nursing home parking lot situation. I was kind of sullen and just kind of dutifully ate my luncheon special.
Later, it was a typical afternoon at my church office, and the day went by fast.
I do remember watching Allie McBeal on channel 25 that night. I know it’s thought of as a very worldly show, and even a suggestive show, but I kind of liked the Allie McBeal Show. I’d seen this episode before- it had originally run around prom season in the Spring- but it’s a touching episode and I greatly enjoyed it. The guest star was singer Josh Groban. Speaking of nerds, he played a high school kid who could not get a date for his prom. Thirty-something Allie McBeal went as his date. At the prom, he sang a beautiful solo. All the kids - even the “really cool kids” - were shocked and impressed by his outstanding singing voice.
I did not stay up too late that night. In those days, I worked at Marian High School every Tuesday (my day off from my Pastoring position). My kids were on “financial aid” at Marian, and so our family had to “give something back to the school”. (This was before my wife worked full-time at Marian High.) Each Tuesday during the school year, I did clerical work at the school’s Development Office. On the evening of September 10, 2001, I was kind of anxious and excited. As a Christian and a pastor, I’d been conscious of wanting to make a good impression and be a good “witness for Christ” in this job. I thought a lot about that as I went to sleep. I wanted to make sure I was up very early the next day- Tuesday, September 11, 2001. I wanted to do a great job on that day and set a great tone for the ‘01-’02 school year! I wanted to spend some time in prayer and in the Bible before I went to the school. Thus, I went to sleep tired but with a great sense of happiness and anticipation as I considered the day ahead of me and the opportunity ahead for me...
I will never forget the date or the day: September 10, 2001. Monday.
It was a beautiful September day...sunny, not too hot and not too cold, fairly low humidity, bright blue sky and hardly a cloud in the sky. My wife Mary Ann and I went to visit one of our church’s most beloved members that morning. Eighty-year-old Ernie Sleeper of Norfolk was temporarily in a Nursing Home and Rehabilitation facility in Franklin. Just a few weeks earlier, Ernie had not been feeling well at all and ended up as a patient in a major Boston hospital. The open heart surgery on Ernie had taken its toll. Ernie, who had been as strong as an ox and as active and vigorous as the average 55-year-old man had NOT looked like himself at all when Mary Ann and I had visited him in the hospital in August. At that time, he was hanging between life and death. I frankly didn’t think he’d make it. Thus, it was with great excitement that we visited Ernie at the Franklin facility. Ernie looked and seemed MUCH more like his old self that morning! Robbie Fregeau, a self-employed guy about my age, who was very close to Ernie had decided to visited him that morning, as well. All of us met and “had fellowship” in the Nursing Home’s Community Room. The television set was on, and Ernie LOVED it. Except for my son Jon, I have never seen anyone love television shows as much as Ernie. He had taped hours and hours of shows on his V.C.R. If the “T.V.” section of his Sunday Attleboro Sun Chronicle was ever missing, he went back to the convenience store where he’d purchased the paper and made sure they knew he’d been cheated out of the “T.V.” section! That morning, a rerun of “Unsolved Mysteries” was on television and Ernie was gripped with it. I think he was more interested in “Unsolved Mysteries” than in visiting with his guests! Honestly, I was kind of glued to “Unsolved Mysteries” as well. Seeing “good old Ernie” again, and knowing he’d be coming back home and back to church was heartwarming. (Ernie died three years later, but the three years prior to his death WERE mostly healthy and happy ones.)
When Mary Ann and I got back to the parking lot and our 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan, I was NOT a particularly “happy camper”. A landscaping crew was working on the lawns around the nursing home. There were all sorts of trucks, mowers, and other equipment. They essentially had me “pinned” into my parking space. Mary Ann didn’t mind it too much, but I’m STILL not real good at maneuvering that Dodge Grand Caravan, and it took some real skill and white knuckles to get our vehicle out of that tight parking spot! Yes, the grass was as green and beautiful as it could be, but I was annoyed! I HATED when blue collar guys kind of threw their weight around and made me feel like a geeky white-collar nerd. Why? Because I’m essentially a geeky white-collar nerd, but I don’t like it when cool blue-collar macho guys remind me of that!
Mary Ann and I went for lunch to a Chinese restaurant located in a Franklin shopping center. We’d eaten there before, but that had been at least ten years earlier. As I recall there were a lot of mothers and kids in the restaurant and I’m not sure why. One would have thought they kids would be in school. I like Chinese food, and I was happy Ernie Sleeper was coming along so well, but my pride was wounded about that nursing home parking lot situation. I was kind of sullen and just kind of dutifully ate my luncheon special.
Later, it was a typical afternoon at my church office, and the day went by fast.
I do remember watching Allie McBeal on channel 25 that night. I know it’s thought of as a very worldly show, and even a suggestive show, but I kind of liked the Allie McBeal Show. I’d seen this episode before- it had originally run around prom season in the Spring- but it’s a touching episode and I greatly enjoyed it. The guest star was singer Josh Groban. Speaking of nerds, he played a high school kid who could not get a date for his prom. Thirty-something Allie McBeal went as his date. At the prom, he sang a beautiful solo. All the kids - even the “really cool kids” - were shocked and impressed by his outstanding singing voice.
I did not stay up too late that night. In those days, I worked at Marian High School every Tuesday (my day off from my Pastoring position). My kids were on “financial aid” at Marian, and so our family had to “give something back to the school”. (This was before my wife worked full-time at Marian High.) Each Tuesday during the school year, I did clerical work at the school’s Development Office. On the evening of September 10, 2001, I was kind of anxious and excited. As a Christian and a pastor, I’d been conscious of wanting to make a good impression and be a good “witness for Christ” in this job. I thought a lot about that as I went to sleep. I wanted to make sure I was up very early the next day- Tuesday, September 11, 2001. I wanted to do a great job on that day and set a great tone for the ‘01-’02 school year! I wanted to spend some time in prayer and in the Bible before I went to the school. Thus, I went to sleep tired but with a great sense of happiness and anticipation as I considered the day ahead of me and the opportunity ahead for me...
1 comment:
i don't remember sept 10th but I do remember being in bio class with mrs. erving sept 11th and having brittany shaw come into the room crying telling us a plane had crashed into the world trade center and she was worried that her uncle was the pilot. then i went to french class and watched the towers fall on the TV in mrs. a's room. i called jon to see if he was ok in boston, because they told us that all of boston was shut down and of course i could not get ahold of him. then of course there was the prayer service. i will never forget it. and poor mikey, it's his birthday.
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